I can guarantee you pay per ride wouldn't work. There are so few rides there that couldn't be a winning formula. In a nutshell, it takes a LOT of staff to run even a small park correctly, which makes it basically impossible to run an overbuilt (in the way of size) park like HRP even for a small number of people. I would guess for the park to reopen and 'break even' in a year, they would need to draw at least an average of 2500 / day at a solid ticket price, and I doubt they *ever* drew that many people at a solid ticket price.

I disagree. My personal opinion is that if they built a solid transportation network (shuttles from major beach resorts) and opened up up as a pay per ride/night time hang out spot, with the bars and restaurant infrastructure to go along with the rides...it could have worked.

If I could, I would buy the park, sell some rides, buy some rides. Improve it, get new ticket system: (free entry, and buy tickets or wristbands). I would save some of the main rides like maximum rpm or led zeppelin. But I can't. I was hoping I could go there the first time I saw it but I couldn't, since it got closed before I went to US

I can guarantee you pay per ride wouldn't work. There are so few rides there that couldn't be a winning formula. In a nutshell, it takes a LOT of staff to run even a small park correctly, which makes it basically impossible to run an overbuilt (in the way of size) park like HRP even for a small number of people. I would guess for the park to reopen and 'break even' in a year, they would need to draw at least an average of 2500 / day at a solid ticket price, and I doubt they *ever* drew that many people at a solid ticket price.

I disagree. My personal opinion is that if they built a solid transportation network (shuttles from major beach resorts) and opened up up as a pay per ride/night time hang out spot, with the bars and restaurant infrastructure to go along with the rides...it could have worked.

I would agree with you if it was designed originally like that, but it was designed as a gated park, and my disagreement was that you can't take a park designed to be gated like that, open it up and make it pay-per-play. I do agree with you that if you design the infrastructure to support that type of model, that may very well have been much more viable.

^If I remember correctly, a lot of their food/retail/entertainment spaces were large enough they could have been repurposed as stand alone venues. It was set up as a ticketed park, but also as a ticketed park that expected huge crowds---so the space was there.

Freestyle Music Park has been quiet for years, but for several nights, people say they've seen the park lit up like it's opening day.

"Several of our staff have noticed the lights coming on," said Beach Church Pastor Damon Adcock. Adcock says the park was a great boon to this stretch of George Bishop Parkway when it was open. "Having a large venue like that attracts new people to the area."

WMBF News dug into why the lights and equipment were coming on at the park, representatives from a realty company listing some of the land around the park said it was simply preventative maintenance.

But while researching, WMBF News also found a series of legal documents shedding light on the current state of the park. Even though initial filings were years ago, another hearing in Federal Bankruptcy Court is scheduled for September 24, and the park's trustee is still trying to collect some debts from companies contracted out by the park.

Calls to the park's lawyer were not returned.

Before it was Freestyle Music Park, it was Hard Rock Park, and its initial developer, Jon Binkowski, also went public about the park recently, speaking on the Season Pass Podcast.

"Our podcast was brand new when Hard Rock Park Opened up," Podcast host Doug Barnes told Binkowski. "All of a sudden, everything stopped. It is one of the craziest, most intriguing, wildest stories to come from the amusement industry."

Binkowski told Barnes and his co-host, Brent Young, about the problems the park had with investors, and the difficulties of keeping the theme park open without a parent company to support it.

"It was great not having someone to report to from a creative standpoint," Binkowski said. "It would have been great to have had someone to report to, to fuse some capital into us so we could survive."

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